


Blended Magic

by digthewriter



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Commitment, Fluff, Happy Ending, M/M, Magic, Minor Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Rings, The Burrow, promise rings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-15
Updated: 2019-01-15
Packaged: 2019-10-10 12:47:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17426195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/digthewriter/pseuds/digthewriter
Summary: For the past three years, Neville has been attending the Weasley Christmas dinner. This year, there's something different about it. And it has nothing to do with Malfoy at the table.





	Blended Magic

Three years ago, Neville's grandmother had dragged him to the Weasley Christmas dinner even though he hadn't really wanted to go. But, it was Gran and Neville didn't have much in him to say no to her.

Of course, he'd said no to her when she'd wanted him to go out with Teresa Covington. She was the granddaughter of one of Augusta's friends and Neville was going to be set up on a blind date. It was the only time he'd said no and she'd only accepted this because he had finally decided to come out to her.

But this time? When Neville had had nothing but a series of bad dates and all he'd wanted was to sit at home and do research, his Gran had insisted on dragging him to the Weasleys.

"Everything all right, dear?" Molly asked, bringing Neville out of his thoughts. He'd begrudgingly gone to the Weasley dinner three years ago, and now he was thankful for it.

"Yes, thank you." Neville nodded and helped himself to more juice. He wanted to keep his head clear tonight.

"What's the matter?" Charlie leaned in and whispered in Neville's ear. His hot breath tickled him and Neville found it hard to remain stoic. He shuddered at the sensation, which earned him a low chuckle in his ear from Charlie, and another tickling.

"Stop…" Neville growled pushing on Charlie's shoulder. "You know I hate it when you do that."

"Right…" Charlie said, raising his eyebrows.

"Here we go again…" Ginny's voice came from across the table. "Can you two stop being so adorable? This year it isn't about you two."

 _Oh, it could be._ Neville thought. _It will be later._

"Stop it," said Harry, who was sitting opposite her. This year, he'd brought Malfoy for dinner. They had only been officially dating for a few months and Harry had warned the family about not making it a big deal. After the war, Malfoy had done his community service and apologised to every family affected by the war — and his family's part in it — and it'd been only a matter of time until he and Harry got together.

Neville knew about Harry and Malfoy _months_ before anyone because Harry was the first person he'd told about his own relationship with Charlie. Neville had been nervous because Charlie was older, and he seemed so distant at first, and he didn't live in England. But over the years, their relationship had grown into something more… and when Harry had told Neville he was in love with Malfoy, Neville had told him to go for it, also.

Neville looked around the table and everyone seemed to ignore Harry's protest and no one even gave Draco a second glance. He thought maybe they were all trying _too_ hard.

"So, you gonna tell me?" Charlie asked Neville, this time, taking Neville's hand in his. "Where do you keep going?"

"Nowhere special…" Neville replied, squeezing Charlie's hand. "Just remembered my first Christmas dinner here."

"Right. And I remember what'd happened _that_ night."

Neville rolled his eyes. "Not now, okay?" he said and turned his attention towards dinner again. His grandmother gave him a knowing look when he'd chanced a glance at the rest of the table again. Of course, she was the only one who knew. He glared at her back. It was his secret and she was going to ruin it for him.

He had always wondered if somehow she'd set him up then as well. Charlie was one of the few single people at the dinner three years ago. Harry was there too but Harry was more like a brother to Neville than anything else. And even though Neville had found Charlie super attractive, he'd been too nervous to talk to him. Charlie was older, so much cooler, and so _out_ of his league.

A giant popping noise made Neville jump and he found both Fred and George had popped a balloon which eventually caused it to fake-snow above them. "Just cooling the tension," they said in unison, looking in Neville's direction as if they knew, which earned them a scolding from Molly for a good three minutes.

❄❄❄❄❄

As soon as the dessert was over, Charlie grabbed Neville's hand and hauled him to another room. "Okay, I can't take this anymore," he said.

"What?" Neville asked once they were alone. They were standing by the fireplace and now, Neville was extra nervous. He'd been looking for a chance to get Charlie alone, and now, he had it.

"Why are you being so weird?" Charlie asked and Neville looked at him confused. "You haven't said a word."

Neville wasn't much of a talker in general but he knew what Charlie meant. Usually, he'd at least make small conversation with the people sitting around him. Tonight, he'd been too nervous to try.

"I…I have something to say," Neville finally found the courage to at least start the conversation. "Can we sit?" He gestured at the sofa because standing around awkwardly by the fire was making him more apprehensive.

"Okay…" Charlie said giving Neville a strange look himself. "Is it serious? Is it about the move?"

"No. I mean…yes. I mean…"

"What is it?" They sat facing each other, and Charlie pulled Neville closer, his hand resting on Neville's thigh. "You've changed your mind." He looked disappointed and hurt.

"No, I haven't." Neville rushed to talk now before he gave Charlie the wrong idea.

About a month before, Charlie had insinuated the idea how instead of going back and forth from Romania to England to see each other, maybe they could find a more permanent solution. Neville had agreed and it was exactly how this whole thing had started.

"I have your present," Neville said, letting go of Charlie's hand and reaching in his pocket. He brought out a small wooden box and immediately opened it. There were two rings inside it. "The metal is created from the oldest Chinese dragon bones and then fermented in ruprechtii - which signifies eternal..." Neville paused to bite his lower lip, " _love._

It was ridiculously sentimental but he also knew he couldn't help himself. He was madly in love with Charlie and he wanted to be with him forever. He was probably too young to think like this, of course. He was only twenty three and Charlie had just turned thirty. Still, he wasn't the type to hold it back.

"I don't believe it," said Charlie but his tone wasn't horrified. It was shocked but there was a hint of awe which Neville didn't understand.

"You're probably thinking it's too soon—"

"No…" Charlie said, grabbing Neville's wrists as if he was afraid to let him go. "It's not too soon."

When he did let go of his hold on Neville, Charlie went searching for something in his own pocket. Instead of a wooden box, he was holding a red velvet one. He immediately opened it to show two red bands. "It's this material called _Kazzaii_. They're meant as promise rings. Remember how you liked those Japanese sweets Hikari brought over for Valentine's day last year?" Charlie didn't wait for Neville to reply, "That's where the idea came from…"

"Promised Treats?" Neville asked, his heart swelling up and he struggled to hold tears back. Gods, he was turning into such a girl. Here he was doing the exact same thing as Charlie but the fact Charlie thought of him in such a way was becoming too much to handle.

"Isn't that yours—?"

"Yeah. They signify commitment…" whispered Neville. "I can't believe—"

"We both had the same idea," said Charlie.

"What should we do? We'll wear both?"

"You could meld the magic together," a voice came from behind them and both Neville and Charlie turned to look and found almost the entire family huddled together by the door.

"Malfoy, you let them know we're listening!" Ron grumbled.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to _blurt_ it…I thought… Potter said it's how you all do things."

"As if I didn't expect you all to know exactly what was going on in here…" Charlie said, sounding amused as Neville buried his face in Charlie's neck, embarrassed.

"Like we didn't know the two of you were shagging in Charlie's room upstairs after dinner three years ago?" Ginny said.

" _Oh my Gods…_ " Neville mumbled into Charlie's skin.

"Wait, so what's this about melding the magic, Malfoy?" Charlie asked and, eventually, Neville sat up. He watched as Draco tentatively approached them and he had his wand out.

"May I?" he asked and Charlie nodded.

Draco took out the rings from their boxes and placed one of Charlie's rings and one of Neville's rings on Neville's palm, and then did the same for Charlie. "There's a spell called _Viculaie_ , which is used to extract the darkness from artefacts, but the opposite of it is _Envinculaye_ , which combines magic together. Dark Wizards used it to disguise bad artefacts as good but it does the same—"

"He sure knows a lot about Dark Magic," Ron quipped, which earned him a glare from Neville and a _shhhhhh!_ from everyone else.

"I'm just saying," said Ron.

"It's his job, Ron," quipped Hermione. Draco was the expert on dark artefacts for the Ministry.

"What exactly will it do here?" Charlie asked.

"If both materials originated in the Far East, it's only going to blend them together and create one item. You can blend the two rings and make them one. So each of you can wear one piece made out of two. Together." Draco looked like he was thinking again. "And if it was fermented in ruprechtii, which will mean it won't rust. It's going to last literally _forever_."

"That sounds nice," Harry said, walking up to Draco and placing his hand on the small of Draco's back. "Do you want him to do the spell?" he asked Neville and Charlie.

"He's the expert," both Charlie and Neville said at the same time.

The entire family shuffled into the room and surrounded them. This wasn't how Neville had imagined his conversation with Charlie would go but at the same time, he wasn't surprised in the least. He looked over at his grandmother, who looked immensely proud, and then Draco said the spell. The rings lifted from their palms as they circled around each other and then with a small light shining from both of them, blended together and fell on their palms.

Everyone cheered as Neville and Charlie placed the rings on each other's fingers.

He would've liked to say he waited until everyone had walked away before the kissing began, but Charlie had always been the shameless one of them all. Fred and George liked the attention, but Charlie was the one who never seemed to care who was watching.

"Ugh," Ginny made a disgusted sound. "They're nauseating. Malfoy and Harry, I hope you don't start getting any ideas from them."

"Ginny!" Harry scolded as everyone laughed and Arthur Weasley pulled Draco away into conversation.

Charlie broke their kiss for a few seconds of air, "So, do you want to go up to—"

"Yeah. Apparate us already," replied Neville, and Neville felt a huge relief the hardest part of his evening was over. Now, he didn't have to remember what it'd been like during his first night with Charlie — as they were back in his old bedroom — they were reliving it.


End file.
